Is It Just Me or.....

[PocketRocket]

When I first came to MLWeb several months ago, I had been used to prowling around a couple American forum websites.

They were invariably full of partisan bickering based more on party lines than on substance.

At times they would degenerate into ad-hom-filled attacks, personal insults, and pissing contests.

Then I found this place. I reveled in it. I gloried in the fact that this, my first Canadian forum site, was filled with (mostly) intelligent adults who could discuss, debate, disagree, etc, and all in a civilized and mature fashion.

I took pride in the fact that my fellow Canadians were capable of a more civil level of discourse than our American neighbours.

Over the past several weeks I have seen a marked decline in the quality of the posts.

Invariably, if a thread manages to reach three pages, you will find that a large percentage of the posts will involve two or three or four individuals (and these vary, I'm not saying it's always the same few) who abandon the points they were originally debating and start in about who is beating whom in the debate.

Then it degenerates further into whingeing on about who won which debate in some OTHER thread.

That isn't what it's about, people.

There are no points scored here. No referee. No net. No goaltender.

This isn't your high-school debating society wherin teacher kept score.

And if it were, half the people here would have been disqualified by now for a variety of infractions.

Terms like "Knee-jerk Liberal" or "Neo-Con" have no place here, at least not when they are aimed at other participants.

Neither does innuendo like "the ignorant claim that...." followed by a quote from the opponent's post.

Numerous posts which simply contain a quote of a previous post, containing a couple-hundred words, followed by a snide remark are also of little use, and have no contributing value.

Hell, take a couple hours and just go through some of the longer threads with an eye towards which posts are of no value and contribute nothing to the topic at hand, and I'm sure you'll find that over 50% of the posts in the last 2-3 months could be completely jettisoned without losing any relevant content whatsoever.

I am not completely innocent of any wrongdoing, but I attempt to limit my childishness to making the occasional good-natured facetious remark which is not aimed at dragging anyone down.

I acknowledge one exception to this, of which I am still ashamed, and even it was mild by comparison.

If anyone can point it out, fine. If not, I'll let sleeping dogs lie.

This was a GREAT forum.

WAS.

It could be again.

Just about all the people here are quite intelligent, and I'm sure most, if not all, are adults.

Why don't we all try acting like it???

[Guest eureka]

Did we not discuss whingeing once? The user has been banned.

But, yes, you are mostly right though I do not think it as bad as you paint. This is still a very good place to spend a little time. I do think that the occasional potshot adds some spice when limited. The trouble I find is that many either are somewhat lacking in humour or that humour does not register in this medium.

Possibly it is the nature of the type to be a little too serious about their beliefs.

[PocketRocket]

Regarding "whingeing", it's a word I like.

Being a fan of British humour novelists, most notably Douglas Adams and Tom Holt, I have read the words a multitude of times, but never actually used it in conversation.

After some controversy here wherein someone was accused of being a previously-banned member returning under a different name, the word "whinge" was cited as evidence against that person.

I jumped in and took the opportunity to ask exactly how it is pronounced.

I believe it was Kimmy who educated me in that regard.

Nonetheless, I continue to use the word when I see fit.

I like it. It's colourful.

Back to topic, I think it IS as bad as I paint.

I've said many times that a person can say ANYTHING, if they choose the right words.

Likewise, a person can make any point, and do so in a non-offensive fashion.

Many people here choose to be antagonistic, which leads to the aforementioned pissing contests.

Many others make sweeping, unsupported comments, like a few I just responded to in another thread.

We should be endeavouring to raise the level of discourse, and thereby raise ourselves, rather than trying to drag each other down into the mire.

Humour is not the issue. There are plenty of very witty people here.

What spirit they choose to use their wit to get across IS the issue.

[Tawasakm]

I jumped in and took the opportunity to ask exactly how it is pronounced.

I believe it was Kimmy who educated me in that regard.

Rubbish! It was me.

[kimmy]

On "whingeing": I believe Argus had speculated that Eureka and The Sweal were actually one and the same, noting that both had said "whinge," a word seldom used in Canada.

On the supposedly declining quality of debate: uh, maybe. I think it varies day to day and thread to thread. Certain topics elicit certain responses from certain posters which inevitably lead to the thread going downhill. Like, at this point I think any thread pertaining to Gomery or sponsorship immediately polarizes everybody and discussion turns hostile very quickly.

-k

[PocketRocket]

Rubbish! It was me.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I stand corrected, and I thank you again for the education.

On "whingeing":  I believe Argus had speculated that Eureka and The Sweal were actually one and the same, noting that both had said "whinge," a word seldom used in Canada.

That sounds about right.

On the supposedly declining quality of debate:  uh, maybe. I think it varies day to day and thread to thread.  Certain topics elicit certain responses from certain posters which inevitably lead to the thread going downhill.  Like, at this point I think any thread pertaining to Gomery or sponsorship immediately polarizes everybody and discussion turns hostile very quickly.

-k

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I believe it goes beyond that. A polarized debate is one thing. Personal barbs and insults, innuendo, demeaning comments; these are all becoming far too common and tend to snowball once started.

What's worse is where they leave off in one thread, they often tend to pick up in another.

I mean seriously, who cares that "I beat you in the ***** thread".

Nobody's getting any prizes for "winning" or "losing" here, so who really cares.

Make your point, address any comments you feel need addressing, and leave off with trying to belittle your adversary.

That's the kind of thing that grows out of control and takes over a thread so that it becomes a pissing contest and totally loses sight of the topic.

Okay. I'm done whingeing for today

[Argus]

I mean seriously, who cares that "I beat you in the ***** thread".

Generally speaking, anyone who crows about how they've "won" a debate - didn't.

[PocketRocket]

Generally speaking, anyone who crows about how they've "won" a debate - didn't.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That may or may not be true, but sometimes it is cause for a long string of posts with two people sniping at each other about who is the better debater, and does nothing but distract from issues being discussed, not to mention wasting space, and the time of people who want to read the really relevant posts.

[mirror]

I agree.

[Melanie_]

I first came to this forum in 2003, and only stayed around for a week or so, because it just seemed so meanspirited. I've often wondered since I came back if I was just here at a bad time back then, when some of the same kind of bickering you are talking about was in full swing. It makes me wonder how many others might also be turned off from participating.

[Guest American Woman]

I first came to this forum in 2003, and only stayed around for a week or so, because it just seemed so meanspirited. I've often wondered since I came back if I was just here at a bad time back then, when some of the same kind of bickering you are talking about was in full swing. It makes me wonder how many others might also be turned off from participating.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Just curious. Have you checked other forums out in the meantime? Because I'm wondering if there is there such a thing as a forum that doesn't have its share of "mean spirited" posters.

[Melanie_]

No, I haven't been to a great number of forums, but I think the nature of this one is given to dispute, and people sometimes get carried away. Mostly it is civil, though, as long as you can take the odd post with a grain of salt. There is an amazing amount of collective knowledge here, and you can learn a lot (there are threads I read all the time, but am out of my league to post in!)

[Big Blue Machine]

It's just you.

[GostHacked]

Every message board has their share of idiots.

Some other tech webforums I go to have the same goups of people. You get cool people, you get informative people, and you get assholes as well.

NO and I repeat -=NO=- forum online is immune to them unfortunatly. Just learn to ignore and don't respond to their posts. You only fan the fire more.

[PocketRocket]

It's just you.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh. Well. That's alright, then.

[PocketRocket]

Every message board has their share of idiots.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No question about this. Absolutely right.

But I'm not speaking of the wingnuts. I'm talking about intelligent people who post some great ideas, but either get dragged down, or drag down others into common, playground-level name calling.

I haven't been on line as much lately, but it seems to me that the situation is actually improving somewhat in the past couple weeks since I started this thread.

I don't know if this thread had anything to do with it, or maybe it's just the hot weather, but either way, it's nice to see.

[I Miss Trudeau]

But I'm not speaking of the wingnuts. I'm talking about intelligent people who post some great ideas, but either get dragged down, or drag down others into common, playground-level name calling.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, it could be worse.

Fight Over Iraq War Prompts Fatal Shooting

- - - - - - - - - - - -

August 05,2005 | PRESTONSBURG, Ky. -- A disagreement between two friends over the war in Iraq ended with the fatal shooting of one of the men.

[PocketRocket]

Well, it could be worse.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

LOL nicely put.

[Mad_Michael]

Well, I've got over 20,000 posts at political forums over the last 3 years or so and I'm a member of four different forums, of which I'm a moderator at two of them, so I've seen a few things around out there.

I'm a new member here (joined today) and believe me, if I thought half the crap in this thread was true, I wouldn't be here today.

I can be arrogant and condescending, but usually only to those who attack first, ask questions later. In these cases, my backhand is usually quite effective. Otherwise, I pride myself on being civil at all times. We are Canadians after all!

[canadian_conservative]

Haven't any of you noticed in this forum how you state an oppinion than all of a sudden everyone's jumping on you and bashing you for your oppinion? It's not right becuase than they start calling you a troll and acusing you of things like that. I can name one person in particular who does this but Ill save names for anyone who wants to know by PM.

I agree with mad michael up here, she says she attacks people only if they do that to her thats the same with me. I think you should be able to defend yourself. But than the idiot who you attack for attacking you brain washes everypne else to go against you than you have a million pother users who want to pick a fight with you and its annoying.

[Guest eureka]

Does "Paranoid Personality Disorder" ever fall from your shrink's lips?

[Toro]

I think this is a pretty good forum. There is little mean-spiritedness compared to a few other Canadian forums I have been on. Flame wars CAN be fun, but only if its in a good-natured way. When it consistently gets personal, it gets old fast. So, being relatively new here, I don't know what it was like six months ago, but its better than others.